Tag Archives: journalism

Ferris wheel. How excited was little Daniel when he first met one, back when he was a six year old. The colors, the lights, the size, the height, the stories from his older sisters. Everything pushed him to agree to dad’s suggestion, and jump on one of the carts and go up to the sky. Unfortunately for little Daniel, half way up he felt the disturbing, unique feeling of gummy bears, chocolate ice-cream and juice all mixing and turning in his stomach – nausea. The colors, the lights, the size, the height – all overwhelmed the little boy. “Tell them to stop the wheel”, said Daniel to his dad, “I want to get off”. But this was not part of the wheel-deal.

In this digital age, we can find information about anything. That’s what we keep hearing, right. But is this massive access to information also leading to more knowledge and understanding?

I can easily answer that question with a no. We know this, it has been said before, all this information might actually be an overload. There is too much to find, too much to process, and when it comes to really complex issues, all that text and documentation on the web will not make you really get it. After searching the web and clicking page through page, you might even be more confused than when you started your quest on Google. The key to get from information to understanding might lie in new ways to explain those complicated issues.

Being a farmer, a dishwasher or a maid is much better than pursuing stories for a media outlet. At least it is for Career.Cast.com, which classified the newsreporter job as the worst for second year.

For the firm based in California, this is the most badly in terms of environment, income, outlook and stress, the criteria they used to rank the jobs from better to worse.

According to the report published last week, the “shrinking of the newsrooms, the reduction of the budgets and the competition from the Internet” have toughened the conditions in the newspapers.

But do not think that this low rank is just for the reporters. Just 12 positions above them the US website placed the photojournalists.

If this is not discouraging enough for all the aspiring journalists (as for the ones that are already in the business this is not a surprise) both professions also appear in the top 10 of the most stressful jobs of the US website of this year: the photojournalists in the 7th position and the news reporters in the 8th.

Nader and Ahmed, butcher of the Bazar Vest. Part of a photostory to be exhibited in Aarhus (DK). By Veronica Sanchez

The last two years of my life, have been quite defining. I’ve had my first real, 9 to 5, (non-babysitting or temping over the summer) job, I’ve covered my first major multi-sporting event (or at least that is what I call it on my resume), and I’ve come to live in a new (very different, very cold) country. And I’ve also gotten to know quite a lot of journalists. These journalists have come from all over the globe and have covered events ranging from football fields to actual battlefields. The conclusion that I’ve come to is that the majority of these (fellow) journalists have two things in common – they’re some of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met. They’re also the most cynical.